On Tuesday, November 7, 2017, the people came out to vote across several states. In Virginia and New Jersey, they elected a governor as well as state legislators, while in other states voters decided certain issues by referendum or voted in local elections.

In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy defeated Republican Kim Guadagno by 13 percent.  Our fabulous home state of New Jersey saw incumbent Republican governor Chris Christie unable to run for re-election due to term limits. Guadagno was Christie’s lieutenant governor and thus was hampered by Christie’s unpopularity. With an approval rating as low as 14%, historically the worst approval rating a governor ever had, Christie and the Republicans were repudiated.

In Virginia, the governorship was won by Democrat Ralph Northam. Virginia has perhaps the strictest gubernatorial term limit law in the nation: terms are two years and there is no re-election of the governor at all (the governor is limited to one term). The office was being vacated by Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who is among the potential contenders named by analysts for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President. The state of Virginia was won by 5 percentage points by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election. Polling was all over the place before the election, but Northam won convincingly by a 9% margin.

State legislature elections in Virginia were swept by Democrats, as they picked up 14 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates; his gave them the narrowest majority, having 1 seat more than the Republicans.

New York city reelected Democrat Bill de Blasio by a gigantic 39 percent margin.The incumbent Democratic mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, was up for reelection. His primary challenger was Republican Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, who ran on the repudiation of sanctuary cities and other Trump-like anti-illegal-immigrant positions. New York City, known for being Democratic, went for de Blasio by a colossal margin.

Maine voted to expand Medicaid, a victory for Democrats. The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care aid was a democratic initiative that passed in the Maine state legislature but was being blocked by the Republican governor. The state settled the issue by referendum and the Democrat position prevailed.